Magazine for card retrieval

ABSTRACT

A cylindrical magazine body loaded with a number of radially disposed cards is provided with a retainer ring for retaining the cards by engagement with a notch formed in the inner upper edge of each card. The retainer ring retains the cards by gravity and releases the same when moved upwards by electromagnet.

United States Patent Okano Sept. 26, 1972 MAGAZINE FOR CARD RETRIEVAL [56] References Cited [72] Inventor: Takeshi Okano, Mishlnomiya, Japan UNITED STATES PATENTS [731 Assignee Shashi" Film Kabushiki Kaisha 3,429,436 2/1969 lrasek ..209/72 Kanagawa-ken, Japan 3,482,687 12/1969 lrasek ..209/s0.5 [22] Filed: April 20, 1971 Primary Examiner-Richard A. Schacher [21] Appl. No.: 135,650 Attorney-Stevens, Davis, Miller & Mosher [30] Foreign Application Priority Data 57 ABSTRACT May 18,1970 Japan ..45/41887 1 A cylindrical magazine body loaded with a number of 52 US. (:1 ..3l2/186, 209/805 radially 9 cards is Pmvided Retainer for retalnmg the cards by engagement w1th a notch [51] Int. Cl. ..B42f 17/16 formed in the inner u er ed 6 of each card The [58] Field of Search ..209/s0.5, 110.5, 111.8; pp g retainer ring retains the cards by gravity and releases the same when moved upwards by electromagnet.

8 Claims, 10 Drawing Figures PATENTED 3,694,045

SHEET 1 [IF 2 BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION l. Field of the Invention This invention relates to a magazine for card retrieval adapted to be used in a device for retrieving cards such as microfiche and data cards, and more specifically to a magazine for card retrieval which comprises a cylindrical body for storing cards radially therein and card retainer means for retaining the cards within said cylindrical body during rotation of the magazine.

2. Description of the Prior Art As a device for retrieving microfiche or the like, those having a cylindrical magazine are known as disclosed in US. Pat. Nos. 3,429,436, 3,438,000 and 3,482,687. These prior art devices are so designed that retrieval codes provided at the outer edges of cards, such as microfiche, stored in the magazine are selectively sensed by sensing means during rotation of said magazine and the card thus sensed is drawn out of the magazine by drawing means. Therefore, there must be provided the same number of distinguishable codes as the number of the cards stored in the magazine. For instance, when the magazine has a capacity of storing 1,000 cards, 1,000 different codes must be provided, which makes the code attaching operation cumbersome and also renders the sensing means complicated.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION According to the present invention, a cylindrical magazine is divided into a number of radial sections and a few number of cards (e.g., cards), each provided with a distinguishable code, are stored in each section, and a desired card is selectively retrieved from a few number of said cards upon stopping the magazine. Namely, a few number of the cards are stored in a predetermined section and, at the time of retrieval, said section is detected by separate means and the magazine is rotated to bring said section to a card selecting position. Thereafter, the desired card is selectively retrieved at said selecting position. Thus, the selecting means can be simplified and hence the retrieval device can be extremely simplified.

As may be understood from the foregoing summary of the invention, a primary object of the invention is to provide a magazine for card retrieval which enables the construction of a card retrieval device to be simplified in which said magazine is used.

Another object of the invention is to provide a magazine for card retrieval of the character described above, which is provided with card retainer means for retaining the cards within the magazine.

Still another object of the invention is to provide a magazine for card retrieval of the character described above, which is provided with card retainer means which retains the cards within the magazine during rotation of said magazine but permits the card to be drawn from the magazine at the time of drawal of the card.

Still anotherobject of the invention is to provide a magazine for card retrieval of the character described above, which is so constructed as to facilitate the reloading of the card into a section of the magazine after drawing the card from said section.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING FIG. 1 is a side elevation of the entire magazine according to the present invention;

FIG. 2 is a top plan view of the magazine;

FIGS. 3A, 3B, 3C show the compartment provided in the magazine, in which FIG. 3A a front elevational view;

FIG. 3B is a side elevational view; and

FIG. 3C is a bottom view;

FIG. 4 is a fragmentary transverse cross-sectional view of the magazine through the center of the height of the compartments;

FIG. 5 is a side elevation of a card to be stored in the magazine;

FIG. 6 is a cross-sectional side view showing the card retainer means of the magazine;

FIG. 7 is a fragmentary cross-sectional side view showing an improved form of the retainer means; and

FIG. 8 is a top plan view of the lever mechanism of the improved retainer means shown in FIG. 7.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS As shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, the magazine for retrieval according to the present invention is composed essentially of a cylindrical magazine body comprising two parallel circular upper plate 1 and lower plate 2, and a number of radial compartments 3 fixed between said upper plate 1 and lower plate 2; a handle 4 provided at the top of said magazine body and a supporting member 5 provided below said magazine body. Each of the compartments 3, as shown in FIGS. 3A, 3B and 3C, has transversely extending protrusions 31, 32 and 33 at the upper, central and lower portions respectively, and openings 34 and 34 so as to lessen the friction resistance to a card to be inserted or removed from the interspace of adjacent compartments and to save the material for the compartment. The compartment 3 also has on the upper and lower faces thereof elongate engaging protrusions 35 and 36 which are received in compartment retaining slits 111 formed in the upper plate 1 and the lower plate 2. The cylindrical magazine body is assembled by inserting the engaging protrusions 35 and 36 of the compartments 3 into a number of the slits 11 formed in the upper plate 1 and lower plate 2, and thereafter securing some of the compartments to said upper and lower plates 1 and 2. The securement of the compartments 3 to the upper and lower plates 1 and 2 may be achieved by means of an adhesive or by means of a screw which is driven into a tapped hole formed at a location indicated by the arrow in FIG. 3B.

The magazine assembled in the manner described has a number of radial sections 6 (see FIGS. 1 and 4) separated by the compartments 3, and several sheets of card or the like are stored in each of said sections 6. The outer edge of each compartment 3 is tapered as at 37 so as to facilitate loading of the magazine with cards or the like, as well as to prevent the collision of the card against the other cards in the section 6 when said card is returned into said section after it has been retrieved and drawn from the section. It will be obvious that the taper 37 is not necessarily formed on both sides of the compartment 3 as shown in FIGS. 3C and 4, but may be formed only on one side.

If the magazine of the construction described above is rotated with cards or the like stored therein, the cards or the like will tend to move radially outwardly out of the magazine under the influence of centrifugal force. Therefore, means must be provided to retain the cards or the like in the magazine during rotation of said magazine. An embodiment of such retainer means will be described hereunder:

As shown in FIGS. 5 and 6, each card 7 is formed with a notch 70 at the rear upper portion thereof, while the retainer means is provided with means for retaining the card by engagement with said notch 70. Namely, the retainer means comprises an annular engaging member 8 having a claw 81 for engagement with the notches 70 of the cards 7, a cylindrical electromagnet 9 having said engaging member 8 secured thereto, a spindle 10 disposed centrally of said electromagnet 9 and fixed to the upper plate 1 and lower plate 2, and a stopper plate 11 disposed. below said upper plate 1 and made of a ferro-magnetic material (eg iron). In the embodiment of FIG. 6, the retainer means further comprises a leaf spring 12 interposed between the stopper plate, 11 and the cylindrical electromagnet 9, whereby the electromagnet 9 is positively separated from the stopper plate 11 even when the stopper plate 11 has some remanent magnetism-therein.

With the construction of the retainer means described above, the engaging member 8 can be selectively located in a lowered position to retain the card 7 by engagement with the notch 70, or in an elevated position to release the card, by electrically controlling the electromagnet 9. Therefore, the intended object can be attained by arranging the retainer means such that the engaging member 8 is held in the retaining position (lowered position) during transportation and rotation of the magazine. Namely, it is only necessary .to arrange such that the engaging means will be held in,

the releasing position (elevated position) when the electromagnet 9 is energized and in the lowered positionby gravity during the rest of the time.

In the retainer means of the construction described above, however, the cards cannot be released from the engaging member unless the electromagnet is electrically controlled. By providing means for manually moving the electromagnet upwards, it becomes possible to release a desired card from the engaging member and remove the same from the magazine. Such manual means-is shown in FIGS. 7 and 8.

In FIGS. 7 and 8, same parts as those shown in FIG. 6 are indicated by same reference numerals. This manual means comprises a horizontal lever 13 having a Y- shaped forked portion 131 and a stern portion 132, a supporting arm 14 fixed to the spindle 10 and a vertical lever 15 having the lower end pivotally connected to one end 142 of said horizontal lever 13 and the upper end projecting above the upper plate 1 to constitute a push button 151'. The forked portion 131 of the horizontal lever 13 is so positioned as to surround the spindle 10, and the stem portion 132 thereof is pivotally connected to the supporting arm 14 by means of a pivot pin 141. Thus, it will be understood that when the push button 151 is depressed, the horizontal lever 13 is rotated in a clockwise direction as viewed in FIG. 7, with the forked portion 131 pushing the electromagnet 9 upwards, whereby the claw 81 of the engaging member 8 fixed to said electromagnet 9 is released from engagement with the notch of the card 7 and the card 7 is set free from the engaging member 8 for removal from the magazine.

As stated above, the magazine for card retrieval according to the invention is divided into a number of radial sections. Therefore, when cards or the like to be retrieved are segregated into a number of groups equal to the number of the sections and stored each in the respective section, and the magazine is temporarily held stationary to selectively draw a desired card from a small number of cards in the respective section, the selecting means for selecting a desired card during rotation of the magazine, as required in the prior art retrieval devices described at the beginning of the description, can be eliminated and the selecting means can be much simplified.

Further, since the cards or the like are retained by the retainer means described above, there is no fear of the cards or the like moving out of the magazine during rotation of said magazine, and since the retainer means can be released as required, the retrieval of the cards or the like can be achieved with high efficiency.

Still further, since the retainer means is simple in construction, including only the electromagnet and the engaging member secured thereto, it is trouble-free and the operation thereof is reliable. (It will be obvious that the engaging member may be provided separately from the electromagnet 9 and secured thereto, or may be provided integrally with said electromagnet.)

It should also be noted that a highly simple construction can be obtained when an iron spindle 10 is used as in the embodiment of FIG. 6.

We claim:

1. A magazine for card retrieval, comprising a cylindrical magazine body having a number of separated radial sections for storing a number of cards therein, an annular engaging member disposed centrally concentrically at the upper portion of said magazine body for engagement with notches formed in the inner upper edges of the cards, a vertically movable cylindrical electromagnet provided integrally with or separately from said engaging member, a ferromagnetic stopper plate fixed above said electromagnet and a spindle axially extending through the center of said magazine body for guiding said electromagnet.

2. A magazine for card retrieval, according to claim 1, wherein a leaf spring is interposed between said electromagnet and said stopper plate.

3. A magazine for card retrieval, according to claim 1, wherein manually operating means is provided for manually moving said electromagnet into an elevated position.

4. A magazine for card retrieval, according to claim 3, wherein said manually operating means comprises a Y-shaped forked horizontal lever having a forked portion surrounding said spindle and being pivotally mounted on a horizontal pivot pin at its central portion, and a vertical lever having the lower end pivotally connected to the end of a stem portion of said horizontal lever.

5. A magazine for card retrieval, according to claim 1, wherein said cylindrical magazine body has a number of radial compartments and said compartments each have a plurality of elongate protrusions extending 6 in a direction perpendicular to the axis of said -6, wherein saidtaper is formed on both sides of the magazine body. outer edge of the compartment.

6. A magazine for card retrieval, according to claim 1, wherein said cylindrical magazine body has a number of radial compartments and said compartments each have a taper at the outer edge thereof.

7. A magazine for card retrieval, according to claim 8. A magazine for card retrieval, according to claim 1, wherein said electromagnet and said engaging member are integral with each other. 

1. A magazine for card retrieval, comprising a cylindrical magazine body having a number of separated radial sections for storing a number of cards therein, an annular engaging member disposed centrally concentrically at the upper portion of said magazine body for engagement with notches formed in the inner upper edges of the cards, a vertically movable cylindrical electromagnet provided integrally with or separately from said engaging member, a ferromagnetic stopper plate fixed above said electromagnet and a spindle axially extending through the center of said magazine body for guiding said electromagnet.
 2. A magazine for card retrieval, according to claim 1, wherein a leaf spring is interposed between said electromagnet and said stopper plate.
 3. A magazine for card retrieval, according to claim 1, wherein manually operating means is provided for manually moving said electromagnet into an elevated position.
 4. A magazine for card retrieval, according to claim 3, wherein said manually operating means comprises a Y-shaped forked horizontal lever having a forked portion surrounding said spindle and being pivotally mounted on a horizontal pivot pin at its central portion, and a vertical lever having the lower end pivotally connected to the end of a stem portion of said horizontal lever.
 5. A magazine for card retrieval, according to claim 1, wherein said cylindrical magazine body has a number of radial compartments and said compartments each have a plurality of elongate protrusions extending in a direction perpendicular to the axis of said magazine body.
 6. A magazine for card retrieval, according to claim 1, wherein said cylindrical magazine body has a number of radial compartments and said compartments each have a taper at the outer edge thereof.
 7. A magazine for card retrieval, according to claim 6, wherein said taper is formed on both sides of the outer edge of the compartment.
 8. A magazine for card retrieval, according to claim 1, wherein said electromagnet and said engaging member are integral with each other. 